plot mistake?
Garth and Professor Marx goes to the future near the end of the movie. So how did Professor Marx show up the next day and announce that his discovery was too dangerous to be announced?
shareSorry, can't help you. I'm still trying to figure out why Garth and his buddies in the future didn't remove his homing beacon before sending him back.
shareThanks for responding! All I know about time travel is from a lifetime of watching Star Trek.
shareAll I know about time travel is from a lifetime of watching Star Trek.
LOL -- Not the greatest source for anything approaching scientific reality. On the other hand, since nobody has ever actually time traveled into their past -- or if they have, they've never published their methods, effects of the time travel, et cetera ;) -- there's nothing to restrain anyone in speculating about it.
I responded to your post about halfway through watching this movie (it's on YouTube). First time I'd seen it in many years. And whatever else can be said for it, it's got a few plot holes. Regarding that surgery I was talking about -- why does Garth even need a surgeon for this? It seems to be that cutting though a piece of plastic, snipping four threads, and removing a pill-sized thingy would be something he could do himself using a mirror. Of course then those two dorky looking guys running through the streets with Boy Scout compasses on their wrists wouldn't have anything to "track."
As to the thing you're talking about, it seems to me to be a classic example of the "grandfather paradox" -- time traveler does something in the past that prevents the time travel from taking place. Marx develops radiotelepathy in 1966 ... this leads to a bad world in 2087, with mind control and androids (including Garth) ... Garth goes back to 1966, convinces Marx to abandon radiotelepathy ... so now the bad world of 2087 is no longer bad, including the fact that androids (even good ones like Garth) don't exist.
OK, at a first, superficial glance it makes sense -- in the new timeline, Garth never existed, so he never time traveled back to 1966, and that means he never met Marx and took him on a trip to 2087. And this seems to be what the movie implies -- it's pretty clear that once the 9 AM magic moment passes and things "snap" to this new reality, Sharon and Zeller have no memory of Garth.
So Marx shows up at the lab because in this new timeline, he never left 1966 at all. But then -- what made Marx change his mind about radiotelepathy and refuse to share his results with the military?
I doubt if there's any sensible explanation within the logic of the movie. Funny thing, though -- as cheesy as this movie is, I've still got a warm spot for it. Maybe that's because it was one of the very first movies I ever saw on television -- I was maybe four years old, and it was playing on one of those low budget independent stations that seemed to show endless reruns of "Tarantula" and "Creature From The Black Lagoon." Although now that I'm older I've got another complaint about it. After sending Sharon and Zeller off to go swimming together -- and in the process getting all of us male viewers thinking about what Karen Steele would look like in a swimsuit -- they really should have followed through with a few moments at Zeller's pool, just so we could see this:
http://content9.flixster.com/photo/93/33/91/9333915_ori.jpg
Regarding that surgery I was talking about -- why does Garth even need a surgeon for this? It seems to be that cutting though a piece of plastic, snipping four threads, and removing a pill-sized thingy would be something he could do himself using a mirror.
An even better question is why he needed to go through all that trouble to to destroy the homing beacon when he could have just flushed it. It would have been hilarious to see the two agents splashing through the sewer looking for it.
Of course then those two dorky looking guys running through the streets with Boy Scout compasses on their wrists wouldn't have anything to "track."
They reminded me of The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones.
OK, at a first, superficial glance it makes sense -- in the new timeline, Garth never existed, so he never time traveled back to 1966, and that means he never met Marx and took him on a trip to 2087. And this seems to be what the movie implies -- it's pretty clear that once the 9 AM magic moment passes and things "snap" to this new reality, Sharon and Zeller have no memory of Garth.
Here's my theory;
Garth takes Marx to the future to show him what the world has become. Upon seeing this, Marx is finally convinced that his invention is too dangerous to be revealed. At this point, the bad future ceases to exist. Since Garth never existed, he couldn't have come back in time and taken Marx to the future, so Marx is instantly returned to his own time with no conscious memory of what he's seen. However, his trip through time has had some vague, indefinable effect on him (movies from that time period were big on characters just suddenly getting an unexplained strong feeling) and he sits down to consider the implications of his invention more carefully. He then comes to the conclusion that it would be misused and decides not to go through with the demonstration.
Of course another plot hole is why the government agents didn't just confiscate his research. I suppose he could have destroyed it, but he doesn't indicate this, he just refuses to give the demonstration and they accept it.
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An even better question is why he needed to go through all that trouble to to destroy the homing beacon when he could have just flushed it. It would have been hilarious to see the two agents splashing through the sewer looking for it.
LOL -- Time for a remake!
Of course another plot hole is why the government agents didn't just confiscate his research. I suppose he could have destroyed it, but he doesn't indicate this, he just refuses to give the demonstration and they accept it.
That one always bothered me. Even if they didn't directly confiscate the research, presumably the government funded the research and now he's refusing to deliver the results. I'd think that the doctor would find himself on the receiving end of one hell of a lawsuit.
movies from that time period were big on characters just suddenly getting an unexplained strong feeling
True. And another thing that science fiction has often been too big on is the idea that a science Ph.D. carries with it some sort of advanced moral wisdom; that everyone else knows this; and so when a scientist (particularly an older one) pronounces some sort of moral judgment everyone else is somewhat humbled and naturally defers.